Grit
by saudade do coracao
Summary: Nothing had ever been given to her. Korra had needed to work, hard, for everything she'd ever had. Speculative intro to "Legend of Korra." One-shot.


For Lindsey, because she told me to "go for it."

Disclaimer: _The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra_ does not belong to me, nor am I in any way involved in its development or production. This is just one fan's idea of what the creators might do with Korra's character. It is based on the trailer and information released at the 2011 San Diego Comic Con. I wrote it to tide myself over while I wait for the show (I am SO disappointed there's no release date yet!).

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><p>Nothing had ever been given to her. Korra had needed to work, hard, for everything she'd ever had. Up in the Republic City skyscrapers, people moved behind gleaming glass windows that overlooked the Park of Harmony. Life there moved at a measured pace—it was calm, expected, controlled. Padding about in the artificially cooled air, the Republic City citizens sipped jasmine tea, perused the latest gossip, and chatted idly in calm voices. Their greatest worries were how to amuse themselves while they endured ten-hour office shifts and whether their children would be admitted into the best Republic City schools. They knew where their next meal was coming from, and where they would sleep that night and many nights after.<p>

Korra knew real life was nothing like that.

Life was more like what happened every day in the Pro-Bending training arenas—gritty, bloody, sweaty, painful. It was a fight to survive. You had to be on your toes every moment or you would be hammered brutally into the ground. No one did you any favors here. To others, you were a number, an obstacle to overcome, a riddle whose solution meant their promotion and your humiliation. And they all meant the same to you. Anything you had, you had because you had bought it with your own blood and sweat. And any moment, someone could take it away from you.

Although the lesson had been compounded there, Korra had begun to learn it long before she ever walked under the shadow of the arch of the Pro-Bending auditorium. You didn't need to daily face powerful benders intent on incapacitating you to understand that life was scathingly difficult. Street living could do that. Fighting with other children for a piece of gutter-soaked bread days old. Wending dimly-lit streets, searching for a safe place to sleep while warding off lascivious benders who were so drunk they'd aim for you and capture a wall instead. Risking your life jumping on trains and stowing away on ships because there was no other way to get where you needed to go. Convincing other benders to give you the time of day so you could learn something, _anything_, from them, even if it meant trading away your only chance of a meal for the next three days.

But Korra had learned the lesson of life even before that. Because really, all you needed to understand life's bitterness was a mother who didn't want you, a string of mother's boyfriends whose attitudes ranged from apathetic to far too interested, and a town that thought you were a freak. That was all, and Korra had experienced every detail. She had cringed and hidden, borne blows, given all she was for a crumb of affection. She had pretended, concealed, lied, and suffered. But it had never been enough. And then one day, when Korra was eleven years old, she decided that she had had enough. She bent her mother's boyfriend into a wall of ice and forced a hill of earth up through the floor to trap her mother in the kitchen before walking away. She never looked back.

At eleven, Korra had understood that the only one you can trust to take care of you is yourself.

Six years had passed since then. In that time, she had pursued one goal, and that was to do right by herself. Somehow, in her mind, this meant gaining mastery of the four elements that she was able to bend. Maybe it was a need for protection, maybe it was a quest for identity, maybe it was a cathartic distraction from hurt. Maybe it was all three. To reach her goal, Korra had bought, haggled, fought, and stolen her way from the South Pole to the Earth Kingdom to the Fire Nation islands. Along the way, she had mastered waterbending and picked up earthbending and firebending as well. She learned by begging, bargaining, paying, and working for her training. But oftentimes what she could offer was just not enough to persuade benders to spend the time and effort to teach her. So Korra had watched, observed other benders in their element, sat on the fringes of school grounds and studied the movements of students going through their forms. Korra copied what she saw and practiced with an focused intensity that she couldn't explain to herself. She just needed to do this.

Korra had learned, even before she ran away, that bending four elements was something to be hidden. It set her apart, caused problems, made people want to use her for their own ends. And she wanted none of that. Sometimes, in her travels, she'd hear whisperings of "Avatar." But Korra didn't believe in such things. She didn't believe in spirits or reincarnation or dreams. She believed in cold, hard reality. She told people her mother was a waterbender and her father was a firebender. She told them her father was a waterbender and her mother was an earthbender. But whatever she told them, she got out of there fast. She never stayed long in one place anyway. There was too much to learn, too much to do, and the past was howling at her back.

Korra hadn't wanted to come to Republic City. She had heard enough of the city's seamy reputation in her travels to convince her that she could live without setting foot in a world of politics and encrusted social strata. But her need to learn airbending had driven her there. Airbenders were an almost extinct class of benders, and the only one Korra had ever heard of who might help her lived in Republic City. So she had steeled herself and paid passage for herself and Naga, her faithful polar bear dog, on an Earth Kingdom barge headed for the Fire Nation island.

It had taken her some time to find Tenzin. Republic City was a massive jungle of steel, iron, and stone, riddled with gangs warring over turf, cops more interested in bribes than in justice, and rushing citizens whose only concern was reaching their destination. When Korra finally found Tenzin, they had an interesting meeting. There was no explaining away her airbending to this man. He personally knew the sparse handful of living airbenders, and Korra wasn't related to any of them. She could see the fervent understanding of "Avatar" in Tenzin's eyes as he spoke with her. And because she couldn't excuse her airbending to him any other way, she played along. When dealing with a man whose own father had been a supposed Avatar, Korra felt that the benefits of lying outweighed the risks. Her gamble paid off. Tenzin agreed to train her.

Because she wasn't weak, Korra told him she had a place to stay and would show up for training in the morning. That evening and many evenings afterward were spent roaming Republic City, looking for a safe place to sleep, doing odd jobs, feeding herself and Naga by her wits. Korra's days, from dawn till nearly dusk, were spent listening to Tenzin lecture about harmony and peace and getting acquainted with air. Her new life was hard, and it was tiring, but Korra was willing to pay the price.

But the strain began to take its toll after a few weeks. Late one evening after training, Korra left Naga in their secluded sleeping spot in the Park of Harmony and took to the streets. She was hungry. She hadn't managed to find anything to eat for dinner or breakfast for the last few days, and the only meals she'd eaten were the mid-day ones that Tenzin served during training. When Korra heard the sounds of weaponry, bending, and screaming erupting a few blocks over, her first impulse was to head in the opposite direction. What the gangs did was their own business, and she didn't need to mix with them. But then Korra realized exactly where the sounds where coming from, and a crazy idea struck her. Her hunger made her act on it.

Cautiously, Korra headed toward the sounds of fighting on restaurant row. People were running past her and cars were screeching off in the opposite direction. Korra reached the intersection with the street where the row began and crouched unseen in a doorway, surveying this side of restaurant row. Her end of the street was relatively quiet in terms of gang activity, though the gangs had clearly tangled here. People were still rushing past, though in fewer numbers, and there were bodies lying in pools of blood on the ground. Further down the row, Korra could make out a few Majok gangsters in pursuit of two Varma Dal members fleeing around the corner of the block. From the looks of it, things weren't going to end well for the Varma Dal members. But that wasn't Korra's problem.

Satisfied that she had a few minutes of relative safety, Korra stepped out from her doorway and headed toward the nearest vacated restaurant. She would have to hurry—she could hear the gangs battling on the next street over, and it was possible that they could fight their way back here. Korra walked through the open door of a little take-out place and made her way to the back. The floor was littered with carry-out boxes of food apparently dropped by patrons in their hurry to clear the place out, and there was a smear of blood halfway to the counter. Korra stepped around it and was pleased to see piles of fresh noodles, vegetables, and meat steaming in a buffet behind the counter. Today was definitely her lucky day. She pushed behind the counter, found a few carry-out boxes, and began ladling a generous amount of food into them. She and Naga would eat well tonight.

In the midst of her free-for-all, Korra was startled by the sound of footsteps pounding toward the restaurant, approaching from the opposite direction she'd thought the gangs would come. It sounded like there were only two people, but there was no reason to deal with them if it wasn't necessary. Korra scooped up her boxes and dove into the kitchen, scanning frantically for a hiding place. She only had time to crouch down behind a chopping island before the footsteps entered the restaurant.

"Lijie?" a male voice called.

"Lijie, it's us! Are you here?" a second male voice cried out, sounding worried.

Upon receiving no answer, the pair made their way to the back of the restaurant. Great. They'd be in the kitchen any minute now, and Korra's hiding place definitely wasn't the best. She prepared to start bending, noting that there was a sink full of water across from her and pots of tea on the counter. Of course, she had her waterskin to fall back on, but she didn't want to use that unless it was absolutely necessary. Korra promised herself she wouldn't forget her food in her hurry to get out of here. She had to remember what was important.

"I don't think she's here," said the first voice. He was behind the counter now.

"Which way do you think she went?" asked the other voice. This voice was thicker and more anxious than the first.

"Hopefully she got out in time," said the smoother voice from near the kitchen door. "She wasn't on the street, so that's a good thing." The door to the kitchen swung open. Korra debated whether she should try to talk her way out of it or just fight. It didn't sound like they were gang members, unless Lijie was a fellow member they were looking for. She decided to sit tight and wait.

The first voice continued, "She's probably over at Niran's. She usually –" He stopped here, because he had made his way around the island and spotted Korra hiding behind it. He was a young man, probably a few years older than herself, dressed in an olive tunic and trousers with a red scarf wrapped around his neck. Probably not a gang member, because they normally didn't wear that type of clothing, but Korra couldn't be sure. At the sight of her, the boy promptly dropped into a firebending stance. "Who are you?" he demanded.

"I'm Korra, and all I want is some food," she said, straightening slowly and keeping her hands in sight. She still clutched the take-out boxes.

The door to the kitchen was suddenly filled with a bulky young man about her age, dressed in clothing identical to the first boy's, minus the scarf. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," said Korra, trying to keep her eyes on both boys at once.

"Have you seen Lijie?" the stocky one asked.

"Who?" Korra asked distractedly. The first young man was watching her narrowly, and his stance had relaxed only a fraction since he had first seen her. She could sense that she was going to have trouble with him.

"You know, the girl at the counter," the boy in the doorway prompted. "Black hair with purple streaks, about this tall?" He held his right hand at chest height.

"Oh! Um, I kind of lost track of her in the rush. You know, everyone trying to get away before the gangs got here."

"What are you doing back here?" the boy with the scarf asked suspiciously.

Korra threaded her way behind the island, keeping it between herself and the firebender. "I didn't think I could make it far enough away before they got here, so I hid."

The boy in the doorway looked from her to the other boy, and then back again. He seemed to be realizing that his companion wasn't accepting her story. The firebender jutted his head toward the boxes in Korra's hand. "Did you pay for those?"

"No," said Korra, deciding to give up on talking. Shifting her boxes to one arm, she pulled the water up out of the sink and encased the firebender in ice before he could react. Then she formed a ball of air and pushed it at the other boy, blowing him out of the doorway. Korra had intended to slam him into the front wall, but as she sprinted through the kitchen door she could see that her novice airbending had failed her. He was only a few feet from the door and already jumping up, surprisingly quick on his feet for someone of his size. Korra called the tea from the kitchen to her, intending to use it to encase the boy like she had his companion. She only managed to trap him in ice up to his waist before there was an explosion of noise and heat in the kitchen.

The firebender appeared in the kitchen doorway, flushed and determined. He shot a few fireballs in between her and the restaurant entrance as he made his way out from behind the counter, clearly intending to block off her escape path. Oh, so he thought he was going to play defender of justice, did he? Not with her, he wasn't. Korra used the rest of the tea to lash the firebender with a water-whip. He ducked and shot fire at her whip, which evaporated into a cloud of steam. "Look, buddy," snarled Korra, annoyed, "you don't want to mess with me."

"You're stealing," he accused.

She condensed the steam back into water. "So what?"

"I won't let you steal from my friend," he said.

Korra thought about pointing out that the food would all be spoiled by the time his friend got back, and no one would be coming to this area to buy food anyway when gang activity had been so recent. But she decided against it. She had had a long few weeks; she was hungry; she was tired of the hardscrabble way she had been living. It had all been building up into a tension ready to explode, and this boy was the spark to the fuse. So be it. Korra could use a good fight. She dropped her boxes onto a dining table and let her water fall to the floor. "You're not going to have much choice," Korra said, and launched a taste of his own medicine at him.

Shock registered in the boy's face as the stream of fire came at him. He ducked and rolled at the last minute. Behind her, the stocky boy was shouting, "Sweet ash bananas! It's the Avatar!" As Korra pulled the water up off the floor, the firebender jumped up and raised his hands to send another spat of fire at her. He never got the chance. Korra launched a full-scale attack using her natural element, freezing the tea in a column and sending deadly plates of ice hurtling in his direction. The firebender was forced into an exclusively defensive position, her rapid-fire assault leaving him no time for attack.

Just as Korra was ready to wrap up the fight, the floor shifted out from under her and pulled her down, closing around her like a vice. "Look," she heard the boy behind her say, "we don't want to fight…" The firebender stood across from her, panting and watching her warily. Korra cursed herself for underestimating the abilities of the boy still frozen in the tea ice. How had she forgotten him? She forced the floor to open around her and push her up, landing lightly on her feet. She kicked ribbons of flame at the firebender before turning to deal with the earthbender, carrying a cloud of water with her. The earthbender was one step ahead of her, however. Her right hand was suddenly encased with stone, and her water cloud wobbled. He was still pleading with her to listen. Korra hurled the water at him with her left hand, but she only managed to ice a few more inches of him before she heard the flames coming at her from behind. She leaped out of the way toward the entrance. The earthbender yowled in alarm as the flames licked at his feet, melting the ice. "Agh, Mako! Watch where you aim!"

Korra had reached the entrance but forgotten her food. She sprinted back to retrieve it, water-whipping the both of them for good measure. Mako deflected the whips, but the earthbender wasn't so lucky. Fire darted between her and the table where she had left her food. She waved it aside, shouting at the firebender, "Are you stupid? Do you want me to kill you?" She hurled a ball of air at him, slamming him into the wall.

The floor erupted behind her in a wall of tile and earth, effectively blocking the entrance. "NO!" bawled the earthbender. "STOP! WE DON'T WANT TO FIGHT!"

"Bolin, you idiot!" yelled Mako. "Look what you did to Lijie's restaurant!"

Korra pulled down the wall, spitefully making sure to slam it deep into the earth, leaving a crater next to the entrance to the restaurant. She leapt over it and screeched to a halt. She had been so absorbed in her fight that she had forgotten to listen to the sounds of the gangs fighting. They were just making their way back up the street, bending and shooting one another. They were still far down the street, and it looked like they hadn't noticed the commotion in the take-out restaurant, but they would be here any minute. Korra jumped back over the crater and pulled it up, forming a thick wall to block the entrance to the restaurant. Inside, the boys had been bickering, but they stopped immediately after she came back in.

"What do you think you're doing?" demanded Mako.

Korra was definitely over the firebender's self-righteous attitude. "Shut up!" she hissed at him. "In case you've forgotten, we're in the middle of an all-out turf war between the Majoks and Varma Dal, and they're coming this way right now! So unless you want to face all of them, I suggest you be quiet!"

She was tensed for attack, but apparently both boys had decided to give up on that. The earthbender was a dripping mess, standing in half-melted ice, but he didn't make a sound. He was staring at her with that glazed-over awe that some people had when they thought she was the Avatar. She had always hated that look. The firebender was watching her narrowly, but he said nothing. They stood in uncomfortable silence as the sounds of gang violence made their way toward them.

Suddenly Korra decided she couldn't wait any longer to eat. Carrying her boxes, she headed to the counter, keeping an eye on the boys in case they weren't as subdued as they seemed. She located some chopsticks, hauled herself up on the counter, set two boxes beside her, and opened the last on her lap. She looked pointedly at the firebender before digging in. His frown deepened and his fists clenched, but he made no move to stop her. Korra smirked.

The fighting came and passed. Korra thought the last of the gangsters were gone when she heard muffled voices calling to each other outside her earth wall. "Hey, what's up with this? Did any of you do this?"

There was a chorus of negatives. "Well, it wasn't here before. Must be hiding something good. Jako, get over here! Take this wall down!"

Korra set her box down next to the other two and jumped off the counter, uncorking her waterskin and flexing her arms. "Well, boys," she said quietly to the two benders with her as she melted the ice around Bolin and drew the water to her, "it looks like we're going to have company. Feel like giving them a surprise attack?" Mako raised his eyebrows, but both boys nodded. "All right," said Korra, and slammed down the wall.

She was greeted by the surprised faces of six Majok gang members. She pulled all the water that she had up into a frozen column and used both hands to rapidly tear off and fire ice bullets at them. Two gangsters fell before they snapped into action. Two sent sheets of fire in her direction, one started hurling pavement stones, and one pulled out a gun and sprayed them with bullets. Mako countered the firebender nearest him while Bolin warded off the earthbender and secured the nonbender in a vice of stone. Korra fought off the second Majok firebender while keeping an eye on the boys. They were good. She had to admit they were good; that is, when they weren't incapacitated with shock at fighting a multi-bender. Seeing that they would soon win their respective battles, she gave her full attention to her firebending opponent. He fought dirty, but her waterbending was more than a match for him. She resisted the urge to use her other bending skills to finish him off faster. It wouldn't do to let the gangs know there was a multi-bender in Republic City. She finished him off by conking him in the head with a block of ice, and he crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

Korra turned to retrieve her food and found Bolin and Mako staring at her. "You're…the…Avatar!" Bolin choked out.

"No, I'm not," Korra said nonchalantly, picking up her boxes. "I just happen to be a multi-bender. My dad was a firebender, my mom's a waterbender, and two of my grandparents are earthbenders. Interbreeding between benders means there will be plenty of people like me sooner or later."

"No, it doesn't," said Mako bluntly. "Genetics doesn't work that way."

Korra shrugged. "That's what you think."

"But you can bend air!" exclaimed Bolin. "At least, I think you did. Didn't you?"

Korra winced inwardly. The one bending skill she couldn't explain away. She didn't know why she had used it on them. Probably too much practice with only that element had made her reach for it too soon. "No, I can't bend air. I am not related to 'Avatar' Aang."

"You wouldn't have to be," said Bolin, unfazed. "I think you _did_ bend air."

"You're delusional," said Korra. She walked past them out into the street, stepping around earth-encased gangsters. She could hear the boys following her. She walked faster. "I'm taking this food whether you like it or not!" she called over her shoulder.

"Take the food, if you need it so badly," said one of them—she thought it might be Mako—behind her back. She looked behind her. Bolin was hot on her trail and Mako was following further behind.

She flushed. "I don't need it…" Well, she did, but she never admitted need. Never.

"Hey, stop," said Bolin, as Korra turned to go again. "Please. We aren't attacking you. We just want to talk."

Korra paused, sighing. It was nearly dark. "What's there to talk about?"

"You need money, right?" said Bolin. It was more a statement than a question. "And you're an awesome bender. There's this job…"

Mako's eyes were darting furiously between Bolin and Korra. "Bolin," he said warningly.

Bolin ploughed on, ignoring him. "Do you know about Pro-Bending? Or are you new around here?"

"I've heard of Pro-Bending," said Korra noncommittally. She had, just a little.

"It's a spectator sport. Two teams of three benders each are pitted against each other. The benders get paid whether they win or not, but if you win you get paid really well. My brother and I are on a team…"

"_Bolin!_" cut in Mako.

"…and our waterbender just got, um, retired, so we need another waterbender. Soon. And you could do it. You're way better than Dèwu ever was. Base pay is ten gold pieces a week. Fights are on the weekend. With you on our team, we'd rock the arena!"

Korra shifted her boxes to one arm and glanced between the boys. "I don't know. I have other commitments…"

"Training is in the afternoons, but if you have a schedule, we'd work with it. Wouldn't we?" Bolin turned to Mako.

Mako was watching Korra with an unreadable expression. "Where are you staying?" he asked her suddenly.

"Over by the Teng Theater," Korra lied. There were modest, low-cost apartments there, so it was plausible. One of the gangsters lying in the street moaned and began to stir. Korra knocked him out again by bending a loose pavement stone against his head.

Mako glanced behind him and then turned to Bolin. "All right, if that's what you want."

Bolin gestured excitedly toward Korra. "You saw her in action! She's amazing! The minute she joins our team, everyone else is going _down_!"

Korra stood and considered. She'd done worse things than beat people to a pulp for her daily bread. It would be nice to have a steady job. "Ten gold pieces a week just for showing up?" she asked.

"Yes," confirmed Bolin.

"And how much for winning?"

"It depends on how much people bet on you. It's at least—_at least_—twenty pieces each. The more popular you get, the more you make."

Korra thought of all the things she could do with twenty pieces a week. Feed herself, feed Naga, buy clothes, rent an apartment. Sure, she'd have to work with these two. But if the firebender kept his mouth shut like he was doing now and the earthbender toned down his enthusiasm a bit, they wouldn't be so bad. She'd seen worse. Korra decided she could put up with a lot for twenty gold pieces a week. "I want to see some Pro-Bending first," she said. "And I do have some commitments that might interfere with practice times. But I'm definitely interested, on one condition."

"What's that?" asked the earthbender. The idolizing look in his eyes made Korra think she could ask for his entire pay or even the moon and he would immediately agree.

"I don't want to hear another word about me being the Avatar. Not to me; not to other people. Got it?"

Bolin looked a little disappointed, but grudgingly agreed. Korra nodded toward the silent firebender but spoke to Bolin. "What about him?"

"He's…cool." Bolin turned uncertainly to his companion. "Mako?"

Mako looked between the two of them. After a pause, he said, "Your '_multi-bending_' abilities are none of my business."

"Meaning?" snapped Korra.

"No rumors are going to start with me," he answered evenly.

"Great!" said Bolin. "Follow us!"

"We can't take her there now!" protested Mako.

"Sure we can!" exclaimed the earthbender. "It's open, isn't it?"

"We have to find Lijie!" hissed Mako. "Remember her? Our friend that we last heard from when gangs were attacking and that we currently can't find?"

"Uh, right," said Bolin, regaining some of the concerned look that Korra had first seen on him. He turned to her. "Can you meet us in front of the Pro-Bending auditorium tomorrow at, say, four?"

"Would six be alright?"

"Six would be wonderful!"

"Do you know where the auditorium is?" asked Mako.

Korra glanced over at him. There was something about the firebender that rubbed her the wrong way. "Yes, I do," she said coldly.

"See you at six! We'll be waiting by the statue of Sifu Bei Fong!" said Bolin, as he and Mako headed off in the opposite direction. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Korra!"

Whatever.

Korra met them the next day as promised. Grimy with dirt and sweat, the boys were waiting for her in front of a statue of stern-looking woman in an earthbending stance. Bolin was thrilled to see her. Mako hung back and watched. They showed her everything and explained far more than she had ever wanted to know about Pro-Bending. Mako, especially, kept emphasizing the dangers of the sport. It was like Korra hadn't soundly whipped him in a fight the day before. Finally, she turned to him and said, "Look, I can take care of myself and any teammates I might have. But if you're not comfortable having me on your team, our partnership will never work out. I can't cooperate with someone who resents me and thinks I'm going to just watch them get attacked. So if you have any problems, you'd better lay them out now."

He looked at her calmly. "We would be a team, Korra. Equals. It's not every person for themself out there. We function as three units of one entity. Can you handle that?"

Korra felt like there was another meaning under those words, but pick it apart as she might, she couldn't find it. "Of course," she said brusquely.

Mako held up his hands. "Then I have no problems."

They had a training session with the three of them, to see how they worked together. It was awkward for Korra. She had never had to work with others when bending before. During their practice, Korra would get out of a bind and feel pleased with herself, only to realize she'd failed to come to Bolin's aid and left him open for attack while he was occupied with another bender. Or she'd be pressed into a corner and resent Mako's helping her out. "I could have handled that!" she shouted at him.

Mako glanced at her coolly. "I know. It's about speed and efficiency, Korra. It's faster if we do it together. Are you okay with that?"

"Yes," she spat through gritted teeth. She would be okay with it. She needed the money.

But Pro-Bending was exhilarating, too. Korra felt the strain of her life melt away as she focused on her element and the fight before her. There was no past; there was no future. There was only the present, water, two boys to look out for, and three people to incapacitate. All her troubles distilled into seven simple things. So after, when Bolin asked her eagerly, "What do you think, Korra?"

She said, "Count me in."


End file.
